If two or more sources are
cited they may be completely contradictory.

I have made no attempt to
referee these differences, but have simply

repeated them for your
edification or use. Quote anything you find here

at your own risk and with a
whole lot of salt.

TERM/NAME

KANJI/KANA

DESCRIPTION/

DEFINITION/

CATEGORY

Click on the yellow
numbers

to go to linked
pages.

Hoshi

星

ほし

Hoshi, i.e.,
star motifs: If I could make a game of this I would show you the two images
on the left and ask you to guess what they represent. Then I would show you
the correct answer on another page. But that is a lot of work. Personally I
doubt that many of you would guess that they are variations on star motifs.
I know that I wouldn't get it right. But that is what they are.

Dower has quite a
bit to say about these patterns noting that the Japanese of the Nara and
Heian periods were quick to accept Chinese concepts of astrology and
geomancy. "Each person had his own particular guardian star, determined by
his date of birth. Similarly, certain stars and constellations had their own
particular associations and were believed capable of existing protective
influence."* Scrolls, clothing and the carriages of the aristocracy
were often decorated with these circular patterns. (Remember there are many
more variations on this motif than the two shown here.)

Because of the
auspicious nature of star symbolism quite a few warrior clans adopted this
motif as their crest.

"A depiction of
three stars...was associated with Orion [オライオン] and called the 'three warriors' or
'stars of the general' in both Chinese and Japanese. In a similar manner,
seven or more stars were associated with worship of Ursa Major...[
大熊座 or おおぐまざ]"
(Source and quotes
from: The
Elements of Japanese Design, by John W. Dower, p. 43)

*Above I quoted
Dower stating that each person had a guardian star based on his/her date of
birth. That is not dissimilar to the worship of patron saints among the
Catholics. Recently I was talking to my friend Scott Alexander Jones (スコット.アレクサンダー.ジョーンズ) and we
were talking about names. When I mentioned that I liked his middle name he
told me that it didn't come from Alexander the Great, but from someone named
St. Alexander. Scott is only twelve right now and didn't know which St.
Alexander it was, but he knew that it was one of them. Although four Alexanders have their feast days in October none of them line up exactly
with his birthday.

Literally hoshi means star(s).
There is a curious reference to a red star which appeared toward the end of
the Satsuma Rebellion (西南の役 or せいなんのえき) of 1877. The superstitious said that it was the
incarnation of the deceased leader of that revolt,
Saigō Takamori (西郷高盛 or
さいごうたかもり). Some
people even claimed that they could see his image when they looked at it
through a telescope. A number of newspapers tried to quell this outburst of
astronomical zeal by stating that the red star was actually Mars. Below is
our doctored version of a print by Kunimasa showing this theme.

A hoshi kabuto (星兜 or
ほしかぶと) is a descriptive term for a particular type of samurai - or daimyō -
helmet. "There were essentially two types of hachi (helmet bowl):
tsuji (ribbed), and hoshi (star, i.e. riveted) bachi."
(Quoted from: The Samurai by Anthony J. Bryant, p. 45) "For a time,
near the mid-to late 16th century, hoshi kabuto were replaced by
tsuji kabuto, but the former staged a very successful comeback. Hoshi
kabuto were originally intended for a small number of plates..."

Hōshi

法師

ほうし

Buddhist priest or monk,
bonze. W.G. Aston in his footnotes to his translation of the Nihongi
says that hōshi is a priestly rank.

The image to the left is a
detail from a print of The 6 Immortal Poets by Shigeharu from 1834. This one
was a hōshi. The full print is in the Lyon Collection. Click on
the image to see it and information about it.

There is a sub-genre of
Muromachi period (1392-1573) tales which include those of the love of an
older Buddhist priest for a young male acolyte or chigo (稚児 or ちご).
"Another prominent category is priest tales, which include tales of
awakening (hosshin) and confession, such as The Three Priests
(Sanninhōshi), and stories about relationships between an
older Buddhist priest and a young boy acolyte... in which love is often
presented as a means to help the priest achieve enlightenment. The most
famous of these is A Long Tale for an Autumn Night... in which a
priest from Mount Hiei and a chigo from Mii-dera temple are caught in a
human struggle between the two temples." (Quoted from: Traditional
Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600, p. 1099)

One category of itinerant
priests were the blind biwahōshi (琵琶法師 or びわほうし). During the
Kamakura period (鎌倉時代 or かまくらじだい: 1185-1333) they accompanied armies.
"The first variants of The Tales of Heike were probably recorded by
writers and priests associated with Buddhist temples who may have
incorporated Buddhist readings and other folk material into an earlier
chronological, historically oriented narrative. These texts in turn were
recited from memory, accompanied by a lute (biwa) played by blind
minstrels... who entertained a broad commoner audience and had an impact on
subsequent variants... which combined both literary texts and orally
transmitted material. The many variants... differ significantly in content
and style, but the most famous today is the Kakuichi text... This variant
was recorded in 1371, by a man named Kakuichi [覚一 or かくいち], a biwa hōshi who
created a twelve-book narrative shaped around the decline of the Heike
(Taira) clan.... [¶] Thanks largely to Kakuichi, the oral biwa performance
of The Tales of Heike eventually won upper-class acceptance and
became a major performing art, reaching its height in the mid-fifteenth
century. After the Ōnin war (1467-1477), the biwa performance declined in
popularity and was replaced by other performance arts, such as nō and kyōgen
(comic drama), but The Tales of Heike continued to serve as a rich
source for countless dramas and prose narratives." (Ibid., p. 707)

Donald Keene discusses the
origins of Kyōgen on pages 1030-31 of his Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from
Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century: "It is not clear from
existing sources when and how Kyōgen acquired
its name. The art itself may have originated not as a stage performance but
as recitations rather in the manner of present-day rakugo. The
earliest reference to what seem to be Kyōgen performers occurs in a document
dated 1350, where mention is made of okashihōshi ('funny
priests'), who seem distinct from both sarugaku (Nō) and dengaku actors.
These 'funny priests' entertained audiences with their adroitly delivered
monologues, and before long they acquired ado, or 'partners,' who
served as foils." Okashi is 可笑しい or おかしい.

Prior to the development of Nō
theater performers of its folk antecedents were known as sarugaku hōshi
and dengaku hōshi..." and, of course, biwa
hōshi. "Inevitably, the term hoshi dropped out of usage
as a designation for formally ordained priests, being replaced by other
terminology, but its continued use in the names for many types of simple
folk performers reflects within a folk Buddhist context the underlying
understanding of the semireligious function of the performing arts." (Source
and quotes: The Legend of Semimaru Blind Musician of Japan by Susan
Matisoff, p. 18)

Fishnet motif :
I do wish I could tell you something significant or deep about this motif,
but so far I have come up with zilch. However, I am adding the detail below
from a Kuniyoshi print. Lovely, isn't she?

Hōsō

疱瘡

ほうそう

Smallpox - We started out to
expand our entry on aka-e or
red pictures meant to ward off smallpox or help
people suffering from it. However, the information about this subject
requires its own listing.

The image above
shows details from a print by Kuniyoshi. On the left is Minamoto Tametomo
(1139-1177
or 1170 depending on your source and who you believe: 源為朝 or みなもとためとも), an historical figure of Homeric proportions
who is even described in the Historical and Geographical Dictionary of
Japan by E. Papinot (Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1992, p. 380) in that way:
"It is said he was 7 feet high and of a Herculean strength. On the right are
the god of smallpox accompanied by children's toys which act as protection
against the disease or as amulets which would lessen its impact once it has
arrived. Notice that each of them is either red or has something red
accompanying them. ¶ There seem to be a multitude of stories told about
Tametomo with several variations on each of these. Here is one account from
Warriors of Old Japan: And Other Stories by Yei Theodora Ozaki and
Hugh Fraser (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909, p. 18-19): One day our hero,
who was once again in exile, was walking along a shore watching the waves.
In the distance, a great distance because he had incredible eyesight, [what
else?], he spotted something small approaching him. It was a little old man.
"Tametomo could hardly believe his sight; he had never seen anything so
strange in his whole life [even though he had just returned from an island
dominated by vicious red haired, red bodied, demons who he quelled and made
his subjects]; he rubbed his eyes, thinking he must be dreaming, and looked
and looked again. There sure enough was a tiny man, no bigger than one foot
five inches high, sitting gracefully on a round straw mat." ¶ Tametomo
walked to the edge of the water and asked the approaching figure "Who are
you?" "I am the microbe of small-pox," answered the stranger pygmy. "And
why, may I ask, do you come to this island?" inquired Tametomo. "I have
never been here before, so I came partly for sight-seeing and partly with
the desire to seize hold of the inhabitants - " answered the little
creature. ¶ Before he could finish his sentence Tametomo said angrily: "You
spirit of hateful pestilence! Silence, I say! I am no other than Chinsei
Hachiro Tametomo! Get out of my presence at once and take yourself far away
from this place, or I will make you repent the day you ever came here!" As
Tametomo boomed the microbe pygmy man kept shrinking until he was only the
size of a pea. It apologized and said it hadn't realized that this was one
of Tametomo's possessions and said it would never come again and "...to this
day the islanders [of Oshima] ascribe the immunity they enjoy from the
horrible pestilence to Tametomo..."

It has been noted many times by
numerous authors and scholars that the assistance of gods have been sought for
their prophylactic, palliative or curative powers. There is Lourdes, for
example. Or, in the Plague by Camus Father Paneloux tells the people of
Oran that their lifestyles have brought on the wrath of God. (The priest
eventually softens his opinions because of the extreme suffering and in the end
even he is consumed.) Or the example of Jesus
exorcising the demons and driving them into a herd of pigs. (Matthew 8.28-34)
Even today many contemporary fundamentalist Christians believe
that the curse of AIDS and the attacks of September 11th are due to the
displeasure of God. So, shouldn't seem so far fetched that the Japanese would
seek salvation through a person who has been raised to the level of a god?
¶ In 1917 "American Medicine" published its 23rd volume. On page 117 of its
February edition Dr. T. Yaétsu noted that it was reportedly the bravery of
Tametomo which drove the scourge of smallpox away from the island of Oshima.
Some people believed that if they painted a picture of Tametomo's house "...on a
piece of red paper and paste this on the door-posts of their own houses, they
can prevent the visit of the spirits of disease." Dr. Yaétsu adds that by the
early 20th century the afflicted household would also send for a medical doctor,
too. Better safe than sorry.

The day after we posted the
Kuniyoshi image of Tametomo before the god of smallpox accompanied by toys
associated with that disease our great contributor E. sent us the Kuniyasu
image shown to the left above. Clearly it portrays the confrontation
between the approaching smallpox-microbe-man who thought it might be nice to
go sightseeing on the island of Oshima. It does not conform to our quoted
account from the Warriors of Old Japan: And Other Stories where Tametomo, standing on
a beach, warns the disease to stay away. Such differences are
incidental. Besides, remember the Japanese already believed that Tametomo
was 7' tall and the smallpox-man only 17". By placing our hero on the edge
of a cliff he would have seemed that much larger to the disease. (Of course,
that is my theory, but then again it might only have been Kuniyasu's
artistic license or perhaps he was working from another account. Who knows?
I don't.)

Now for the detail shown on
the right above: It is particularly fascinating. It operates on so many
levels at once. The figure of smallpox as clad in red makes perfect sense.
Like the story told above he is riding the waves on a small, round, straw
mat. However, even here Kuniyasu has added something new - a sail-like
element made up of a Shinto religious prop. But the comparisons don't stop
there: The smallpox-little-guy-microbe looks strangely reminiscent of
Daruma,
a buddhist deity. Daruma is generally bearded, frequently draped in red and
is either shown with legs or without them. Here the microbe's left foot
appears while its right leg is implied hidden below its robes. (Keep in mind
that Daruma meditated before a wall so long that his legs rotted off.)
Another oddity is that the face of the microbe seems to be reminiscent of
that of a Chinese man or perhaps even a Taoist immortal. Either way, it
might represent an unwanted (non-native) foreign curse. There is another
Daruma/Bodhidarma connection which may simply be a matter of convenience:
Smallpox is sailing toward Oshima on a tiny mat? Bodhidarma traveled
from India to China by standing on a blade of grass - or some such thing.
This connection with Daruma is made clearer by the inclusion of a red Daruma
doll in the picture by Kuniysohi.

Above is a book illustration by
Hokusai created as early as the first decade of the nineteenth century

. It was published decades
before the one by Kuniyasu (ca. 1845-6) which was sent to us by our contributor
E.

Clearly one was the model
for the other. The Hokusai accompanies a text by Bakin.

By the way, the coloring is
ours.

In The Greatest Killer:
Smallpox in History by Donald R. Hopkins (University of Chicago Press, 2002,
p. 111) the author lists a number of epidemics which spread through Japan in the
11th and 12th centuries. He notes that a number of royal princes had contracted
the disease some of whom died while others recovered. He even speculates, via
a quote from Samson, that Kiyomori died of it in 1181. "...suffering from a high
fever... suffering torments, crimson in face, and 'burning like fire.' ...he
died that day." Below is a detail from a triptych by Yoshitoshi showing Kiyomori
in his death throes. In the original he is backed by flames and figures from
Hell. With the death of the 63 year old Kiyomori his rivals, the Minamoto, were
able to seize power and consolidate their position.

According to Hopkins Tametomo's
"...image, printed in red ink, was one of the most popular pictures Japanese
families used to hang on the walls of their homes to protect or help cure family
members from smallpox..." (Ibid., p. 112)

Japanese Dolls: The
Fascinating World of Ningyo
by Alan Scott Pate (Tuttle Publishing, 2008, p. 266) defines "hōsō-ningyō
[as a] Talismanic doll form used to protect against smallpox. Usually decorated
in a predominantly red palette. Typical figures used as hōsō-ningyō
include a mythological water imp (shōjō), Shoki the Demon Queller,
Minamoto no Tametomo, Daruma, and a long-eared owl."

Above is a detail from a
print by Kuniyoshi showing a red Shoki.

I always wondered why there were so many red Shokis around. Not that they are
common, but I had seen quite a few of them over the years and found them very
striking. Now I know why they are red: Smallpox. Yup, that's it and we will
explain more later. Soon hopefully.

Hōsō-e

疱瘡絵

ほたる

Smallpox prints - Prints
meant to appease or drive away the smallpox spirits. Rebecca Salter wrote at
length about these prints in her Japanese Popular Prints: From Votive
Slips to Playing Cards, p. 121: "Prevention was infinitely preferable to
dealing with the illness, so efforts were made to confuse the smallpox
kami and make him go elsewhere. In some parts of Japan, to protect
newborns, the character for dog would be written on the child's forehead to
fool the kami into not recognising it as a human child. If the worst
happened and the disease was contracted then all the effort went into making
sure it was as mild as possible. A lot of dos and don'ts included: no saké
for 100 days; avoiding salty and spicy food; avoiding those with smelly
armpits and avoiding the smell of latrines and burning hair and the comings
and goings of religious people! A mixture of musk, cinnabar and castor oil
plant was applied to the patient with a spell. It was painted between their
eyebrows, on the bridge of the nose, hollow of the stomach, hands and feet,
and the mixing bowl and brush were then thrown into the river.
Alternatively, a printed calendar of the year of the child's birth was
taken, their date of birth cut out and burned and the residue fed to the
patient. This belief in the power of paper and sumi ink (and the
written/printed word) was found in the practice of pilgrimage. If lucky
enough to be given a votive slip by a pilgrim who had performed the circuit
many times, it was said to be particularly beneficial to soak the slip in
water and eat it."

See also our entry on aka-e
for more information.

Hotaru

蛍

ほたる

Firefly: Merrily Baird in
her Symbols of Japan: Thematic Motifs in Art and Design (pp. 110-111)
notes that "As early as the Nara period..." fireflies were a poetic symbol
for passionate love. During the Heian period the nobility went on outings to
view and capture these insects on warm summer nights. "From the Chinese, the
Japanese appear to have derived the custom of viewing fireflies as souls of
the dead..." The ones at the Uji River near Kyōto even came to represent the
deceased warriors of the opposing armies of the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans during the 12th century. "Given it's size..."
Baird concludes "...the firefly does not lend itself to solo treatment on a
large scale."

The detail to the left is from
a print by Yoshitoshi.

The modern Chinese word for
fluorescence is made up of the characters for firefly (螢) and light (光).

The image to the left is a
detail of a print with certain figures by Toyokuni III, like the one shown
above and the night background by Hiroshige.

The bijin shown here appears to
be carrying a cage filled with hotaru. She could have caught them herself as
seen in an early print by Harunobu

or she could have bought them from an
hotaru-uri or firefly merchant. Such hawkers are mentioned in J. E. De
Becker's

Yoshiwara: The Nightless City (p. 14) as hanging out during
summer months in the Yoshiwara.

The detail shown above is
from a print by Kuniaki.

These two details are both from prints by
Kiyochika.

The one below is from "Tennōji-shita
Koromogawa"

(天王寺下衣川 or てんのうじしたころもがわ)

Koromo River below Tennōji
Temple, 1880

The entry on fireflies in
the Kodansha Encyclopedia
of Japan
entry by Saitō Shōji (vol. 2, p. 280) mentions the "...legend of a poor
scholar who unable to afford lamp oil, studied by the glow of fireflies in
the summer." Sei Shōnagon [清少納言 or せいしょうなごん] made a list of attractive
things and placed fireflies on a moonless night at the top of her list. "In
the Tale of Genji... Prince Hotaru, Genji's half-brother, catches his
first glimpse of Lady Tamakazura by the light of fireflies." Saitō ends this
section by noting the popularity of 'firefly viewing' during the Edo period.
"There were special boats for viewing fireflies at the river Ujigawa in
Kyōto and at Ishiyama on the shore of Lake Biwa.

The following entry on
'firefly viewing' is by Inokuchi Shōji. Hotarugari (蛍狩り or ほたるがり)
originally was a pastime for Heian aristocracy (794-1185), but by the Edo
period (1600-1868) it was popular among all groups. "Since the number of
fireflies in Japan has decreased because of pollution and agricultural
chemicals, fireflies are raised for hotels and large restaurants, which
sponsor firefly displays to attract guests."

A wonderful web site run
by the University of Virginia notes the use of pesticides as a major problem
in the decline of fireflies. The pesticides kill kawanina (川蜷 or
かわにな) or river snails off which firefly larvae feed.

In Mock Joya's Things Japanese (Japanese Times, Inc., 1985 edition,
pp. 124-125) children are described hunting for fireflies with fans and
bamboo branches. When caught they were often put in cages covered in gauze.
"In cities, hotaru are sold in cages at street stalls." "Hotaru-gassen
[蛍合戦 or ほたるがっせん] or firefly battles are one of the most wonderful summer
sights. Huge masses of fireflies come from different directions and mingle
in confusion as they come together, making hillsides and streams bright with
tiny yellowish lights."

There is a legend of an
extremely pious, but poor old farmer named Kanshiro who makes a religious
pilgrimage every year. However, he rarely travels during the summer months
because he generally suffers from dysentery at that time. Nevertheless,
despite all of his infirmities Kanshiro makes the journey every year. As
long as he can get around he will pay homage to the gods. Finally he feels
that this will be his last circuit and that he must go even though it is
summertime. His neighbors raise a considerable fund to help him on his way.
After a few days his old ailments strike again and he has to find a place to
rest for a few days. Because he is unclean he feels that he cannot enter any
shrines and that even the money he has been given is now tainted. Desperate
to rest up he stops at a cheap inn and asks the owner, Jimpachi, to help him
back to good health and to keep the money safe for him until that time.
After several days he sets out again, but finds the inn owner has replaced
his purse of coins with stones. Kanshiro returns to the inn and confronts
the owner who denies the theft and with the help of others beats the old man
to a pulp. Despite this the old man makes his way to Ise even though he has
had to crawl and beg the whole way. By the time he returns home he is
completely wasted. Some of the people who gave him the money believe his
story. Others do not. He sells all his property to replace the funds which
were stolen. When that is done the old man sets out again to scold the owner
of the inn who now is living in considerable wealth. Once more the inn owner
denies the charge of theft and drives the old man away. Driven by the
authorities from the town because he is now a beggar the pious, old farmer
dies, but not before he curses the now wealthy thief. Soon thereafter the
inn owner falls ill and takes to his sick bed. A few days later a swarm of
fireflies rise from the Kanshiro's grave and surround Jimpachi's
mosquito-curtain. They are unrelenting trying to force their way in. Even
their light dazzles the sick man. Jimpachi's neighbors try to kill the
fireflies until they realize that each one they eliminate is replaced by a
new one streaming directly from the old man's grave. The effort is futile
and probably unwise. As soon as Jimpachi dies the fireflies disappear.
(Source: Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan, by Richard Gordon Smith,
Bracken Books, 1986 edition, first published in 1918, pp. 282-86)

In the Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu
both Seidensticker and Tyler translate the title of chapter 25 as
'Fireflies'. Waley, on the other hand, calls it 'Glow-Worm'.

A contemporary of the author
of the Tale of Genji was Izumi Shikibu who wrote some very beautiful poetry.
Steven D. Carter in his Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology
translates many of them like the one below from page 123. It combines the
sense of self and soul and yearning in one brief passage.

So forlorn am I

that when I see a firefly

out on the marshes,

it looks like my soul
rising

from my body in longing.

Another reading of the poem
shown above is from Brower and Miners Japanese Court Poetry (p. 222):

As I fall in sadness

At his neglect, the
firefly of the marsh

Seems to be my soul

Departing from my very
flesh

And wandering in anguish
off to him.

In The Clear Mirror: A
Chronicle of the Japanese Court During the Kamakura Period (1185-1333)
by George Perkins there is a particular beautiful poem by Minamoto Arifusa
(源有房 or ありふさのみなもと?: 1251-1319):

Thanks to the light shed

by fireflies assembled

at my window,

I bathe in radiance

beyond all expectation.

In 1511 the priest Sōchō,
living in isolation wrote - as quoted from Song in an Age of Discord: The
Journal of Socho and Poetic Life in Late Medieval Japan by H. Mack
Horton, p. 155:

By the pinewood door

lit by fireflies

when it grows dark.

One learns the meaning of
tedium

when one dwells in
isolation.

Stephen Addis in his essay
The Three Women of Gion in Flowering in the Shadows: Women in the
History of Chinese and Japanese Painting discusses and compares the poems of
Kaji, the grandmother, Yuri, the adopted daughter and Gyokuran, the natural
born granddaughter. They lived and wrote in the late 17th to the mid-18th
centuries. Each woman wrote about fireflies, but the first two appear to be
allusions to longing and lost loves and the third simply dealt more directly
with nature. As Addis points out the differences may have more to do with
the events in each woman's life. Not only are these poems lovely and
evocative, but considering the familial relationships, that much more
interesting.

Kachi's poem

Flaming as they pass,

the fireflies of the
swamp -

I would show them to

an uncaring lover as

my overflowing feelings.

Yuri's poem

Never extinguished

can be the suffering that

I will always feel -

I am like the firefly

that has scorched its own
body.

Gyokuran's poem

Summer evening -

over the shallow
swampland,

shining upon the

waters are the entangled

reflections of fireflies.

Haruo Shirane in his Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900 wrote about
the use of fireflies in haiku as allusions/metaphors: "...those that mingle
among the pinks are said to share the feelings of Prince Hyōbukyō..." Its
footnote tells us that the reference is to the brother of Genji, in The
Tale of Genji, in the Fireflies chapter. Hyōbukyō sees Tamakazura
for the first time and only behind a screen in the light of the fireflies
released by his brother, "...causing [Hyōbukyō] to immediately fall in love
with her. The wild pinks (tokonatsu) refer to Tamakazura." (p. 173)
Below is a photo of a tokonatsu (常夏 or とこなつ) shown courtesy of Shu
Suehiro at http://www.botanic.jp/plants-ta/tokona.htm.

Fireflies and lilies are
said to stand for Minamoto Itaru, of the Tales of Ise, who peered
into a woman's carriage with the aid of firefly light. Fireflies that "...on
Mt. Hiyoshi are compared to the red buttocks of monkeys, and the ones that
glitter at Mount Inari are thought to be foxfires."

Sorry. No monkey butts here,
but at least this is a Japanes monkey

as posted at
commons.wikimedia.org by Alphonsopazphoto.

"Fireflies are also said to
be the soul of China's Baosi..." who was transformed into the 9 Tailed Fox,
Tamamo no mae. This creature bewitched the retired emperor Toba "...by
disguising itself as a beautiful woman. Toba ordered Miura no suke Yoshiaki
to kill her. At death she was tranformed into the Sesshōseki (殺生石 or
せっしょうせき) or Killing-Rock. Below is a detail from a print by Eisen showing
Tamamo no mae being stalked. It is shown courtesy of our great friend Dan.

And then there is the haikai
comparing monks to fireflies where there is a play on the word hajiri
"...which means both 'holy men' and 'fire buttock' (lower part of a hearth)
implying homosexuality, which was not uncommon among priest in the medieval
period.

At Mount Kōya

Even the fireflies in the
valley

are holy men

Sometimes Japanese poetry
related to the firefly was both witty and inelegant. A poem quoted in
Haikai Poet Yosa Buson and the Bashō Revival by Cheryl A. Crowley makes
this clear.

scholarly brilliance

issues forth from your
bottom

firefly

At times in courtly Japanese
poetry fireflies have been compared to the fires used to lure fish or the
stars in the night sky. These creatures can stand as a metaphor for sexual
passion.

In Jack London's Smoke
Bellew in a chapter entitled The Stampede to Squaw Creek there is
passage worth quoting: "Oh, I don't know. Mebbe that 'sa firefly ahead
there. Mebbe they 're all fireflies — that one, an' that one. Look at 'em !
Believe me, they is a whole string of processions ahead."

The Continuum
Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in World Art by Hope Werness gives lots
of interesting information on fireflies - most of which we will cite here.
In Japan hotaru were said to be souls, ghosts or warriors in battle. Werness,
using Joly, relates the story of the Firefly Princess (Hotaru hime). In
vying for her other insects were burned trying to bring her fire, but Hi
Maro, the Firefly Prince succeeded. The author also discusses the role of
fireflies in Mayan culture. The Death Lords told the Hero Twins [Hunahpu and
Ixbalanque] they must keep their cigars lit all night. An impossibility.
However the twins tricked the gods by placing fireflies at the end of their
cigars to make them appear lit. Fireflies may also have been metaphorical
references to the stars. T. Volker's version of the
story of Hotaru hime is somewhat different. In it the winning suitor is a
dragonfly - the symbol of Japan. (See our entry on tombo
on our Tengu thru Tombo page.) In The Hidden Maya Martin
Brennan gives a fuller detail (p. 179) of this American myth. The Heroes
"...are compelled to play ball with the Lords of Death during the days and
they are subjected to a series of ordeals during the nights. On the first
night they are placed in the Dark House and given a torch and two cigars,
which they are commanded to light and yet, impossibly, return in tact in the
morning. The Twins outwit the lords by placing fireflies at the tip of their
cigars and passing a macaw's tail as the flame of the torch."

There is a style of
porcelain decoration adopted from the Chinese referred to as hotarude
(蛍手 or ほたるで) or firefly-style. When discussing Chinese porcelains it is
referred to as the rice-grain patter. The hardened clay form is pierced
through and then the openings are filled over with a translucent glaze
giving each piece a special sense of delicacy - especially if the plate,
bowl, cup or vase are of the kind known as egg-shell porcelain.
Plique-a-jours is a similar technique, but with enamels.

And there is a firefly squid
or hotaru-ika (蛍烏賊 or ほたるいか). It is the Watasenia scintillans
or sparkling enope squid. Supposedly it is the most bioluminescent squid in
the world which emits bright flashes at times - hence, the name.
Tourist boats at Toyama take passengers out to watch these creatures as the
near the surface and they flash their blue-white lights. There are different
explanations for this behavior, but most modern sources say it occurs during
spawning season. The photo below was posted at commons.wikimedia.org by
Takoradee. What we don't know is how far back this name goes.

Since we don't have an image
of the squid at night doing its hotaru thing we created the negative
of the photo shown above to give you an inkling - get it? - of what it might
look like in nature.

Just for good measure here
is a part of a poem by Bessie Rayner Belloc (ベッシー Rayner ベロックス: 1829-1925)
where the fairies are chasing fireflies. We know that it has absolutely
nothing to do with Japan or its culture, but for now that is what got us
chasing fireflies ourselves, metaphorically speaking.

But when the stars of the
South shine bright,

We chase the firefly
thro' the night;

When the tigers growl and
the lions roar

We fly over their heads
and laugh the more

"There are many places in
Japan which are famous for fireflies - places which people visit in summer
merely to enjoy the sight of the fireflies. Anciently the most celebrated of
all such places was a little valley near Ishiyama, by the lake of Omi. It is
still called Hotaru-Dani, or the Valley of Fireflies. Before the Period of
Genroku (1688-1703), the swarming of the fireflies in this valley, during
the sultry season, was accounted one of the natural marvels of the country.
The fireflies of the Hotaru-Dani are still celebrated for their size; but
that wonderful swarming of them, which old writers described, is no longer
to be seen there." This was replaced by Uji in Yamashiro. Every summer
special trains run from Kyoto and Osaka to Uji, bringing thousands of
visitors to see the fireflies. But it is on the river, at a point several
miles from town, that the great spectacle is to be witnessed - the
Hotaru-Kassen, or Firefly-Battle." Sometimes they appear "...to
the eye like a luminous cloud, or like a great ball of sparks." At times it
"...is said to appear like the Milky Way, or, as the Japanese people
poetically call it, the River of Heaven." (Quoted from: Lafcadio Hearn:
Japan's Great Interpreter: A New Anthology of His Writings 1894-1904
by Louis Allen and Jean Wilson, p. 190)

T. Volker noted that some
people believed that the so-called firely-battles were reenactments of the
souls of the Heike warriors. "The bigger specimens are called Genjibotaru,
the smaller ones Heikebotaru." Later he writes: "After the battle of
the river Uji in 1180, where his son was killed, Minamoto no Yorimasa,
retreated to the Byodō, a temple in the neighborhood and performed
seppuku. It is said that the soul left the body in the form of a swarm
of fireflies."

Hotaru-Dani(火垂る谷 or
ほたるだに); Hotaru-kassen (蛍合戦 or ほたるかっせん).

"Many persons in Japan earn
their living during the summer months by catching and selling fireflies:
indeed, the extent of this business entitles it to be regarded as a special
industry.... From sixty to seventy firefly-catchers are employed by each of
the principal houses during the busy season. Some training is required for
the occupation. A tyro might find it no easy matter to catch a hundred
fireflies in a single night; but an expert has been known to catch three
thousand. The methods of capture, although of the simplest possible kind,
are very interesting to see. [¶] Immediately after sunset, the
firefly-hunter goes forth, with a long bamboo pole upon his shoulder, and a
long bag of mosquito-netting wound, like a girdle, about his waist. When he
reaches a wooded place frequented by fireflies - usually some spot where
willows are planted on the bank of a river or lake - he halts and watches
the trees. As soon as the trees begin to twinkle satisfactorily, he gets his
net ready, approaches the luminous tree, and with his long pole strikes the
branches. The fireflies, dislodged by the shock, do not immediately take
flight... but drop helplessly to the ground, beetle-wise, where their light
- always more brilliant in the moments of fear or pain - render them
conspicuous. If suffered to remain on the ground for a few moments, they
will fly away. But the catcher picking them up with astonishing quickness,
using both hands at once, deftly tosses them into his mouth - because
he cannot lose the time required to put them, one by one, into the bag. Only
when his mouth can hold no more, does he drop the fireflies, unharmed, into
the netting. [¶] Thus the firefly-catcher works until about two o'clock in
the morning - the old Japanese hour of ghosts..." At that hour the fireflies
move to ground and the catchers use a bamboo rake to stir the ground cover
and get the fireflies to react and be caught there. A little before dawn the
men would return home. ¶ At the shops theses insects are separated according
to their luminosity. The brighter ones being the more valuable because they
fetch higher prices. Some buyers selected them for summer parties. The cages
ranged from the simplest to the most elaborate and beautiful. Since the
captive fireflies had a high mortality rate they could still be redeemed
financially when they were sold to specialists in the preparation of
Chinese-style medicines. "Even today some curious extracts are obtained from
them; and one of these, called Hotaru-no-abura, or Firefly-grease, is
still used by wood-workers for the purpose of imparting rigidity to objects
made of bentwood." ¶ Hearn believed some of the firefly medicines belonged
more to the category of demonology than to therapeutics. "Firefly-ointments
used to be made which had power, it was alleged, to preserve a house from
the attacks of robbers, to counteract the effect of any poison, and to drive
away 'the hundred devils'. And pills were made with firefly-substance which
were believed to confer invulnerability..." sometimes as 'Commander-in-Chief
Pills' or as 'Military-Power Pills'. (Ibid., pp. 190-2) Hotaru-no-abura (火垂脂
or ほたるのあぶら).

Hotaru-gari (蛍狩り or ほたるがり)
or firefly-catchin: "Anciently it was an aristocratic amusement; and great
nobles used to give firefly-hunting parties..." (Ibid., p. 192)

Basil Hall Chamberlain in A Handbook of Colloquiel Japanese quotes Schopenhauer (ショーペンハウアー:
1788-1860), the German philosopher: "Religion is like a firefly. It can
shine only in dark places."